Katie Javanaud asks whether there is a contradiction at the heart of Buddhism. Two of the most fundamental doctrines of Buddhism are firstly that the self is illusory, and secondly that we can achieve liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth to reach a state of peace called Nirvana. From the perspective of Western […]
Is The Buddhist ‘No-Self’ Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana? Read More »
Benedict O’Donohoe introduces our Sartre centenary issue. The 21st June 2005 was an auspicious date – the summer solstice, the tipping point of Gemini into Cancer, and the centenary of the birth of Jean-Paul Sartre. And on 15th April 1980 – just 25 years ago – Sartre died. These two dates are worthy of note
Why Sartre Matters Read More »
Peter Rickman tells us why it isn’t. I was slightly taken aback when I heard a speaker at a psychology lecture meeting claiming confidently that psychology was a science. Of course, if we define science broadly, as the systematic search for knowledge, psychology would qualify for that label. But it is not terminology that is
Is Psychology Science? Read More »
Matt Qvortrup argues that Aristotle’s political philosophy is surprisingly modern. The son of a doctor, Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira in Macedonia in the year 384 BC, and was educated at Plato’s Academy. When his mentor Plato died in 347 BC, the Macedonian went home and became the tutor of Alexander, the
Aristotle’s Philosophy of Equality, Peace, & Democracy Read More »
Chris Durante asks himself just what makes him the person he used to be. Stepping into a park I had frequented as a little boy, memories of my childhood began to flood my mind, each one a rich story of a distant past. As I continued to reminisce, each story flowed into the next, and
A Philosophical Identity Crisis Read More »
Sándor Szegláb decodes the hidden message of the Tractatus. The statements of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus start with index numbers. It is taken for granted that this indexing is used in such a way that 1.1 is a comment on or elaboration of 1, 1.11 and 1.12 comment on 1.1, and so forth. With Wittgenstein,
The Tractatus Code Read More »
Carlos Muñoz-Suárez guides us on a trip down the linguistic rabbit hole. “Most of the propositions and questions of philosophers arise from our failure to understand the logic of our language.”Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 4.03 On 13th March 1919, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote a letter telling Bertrand Russell that he had completed a book entitled Logisch-Philosophische
The Tractatus… is it so intractable? Read More »
Lucian Lupescu sees how far Kant’s and Marx’s ideals overlap. In 1784 Immanuel Kant described humanity as being in a state of immaturity, which to Kant is “the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another” (An Answer to the Question: ‘What is Enlightenment?’, trans Mary C. Smith). The reasons for this
A New Twist on Old Ideas Read More »
Marianne Talbot tells us how to use the ultimate in transferrable skills. My mug is sitting to my right doing nothing. This is because it believes it is at the centre of the universe, and its desire to be at the centre of the universe is stronger than any of its other desires. I expect you’ll
Critical Reasoning Read More »
Nick Inman wants to know where you’re at. Are you ready for the ultimate trick question? Here it is: Am I me, and are you? That is: do I and you exist? Only a yes/no answer is allowed. It wouldn’t be good philosophy to say that you ‘sort of’ exist, nor that you are a